I started the 4th book after taking a break to read a few more Dresden books and the first book in Tad Williams' new series. I haven't enjoyed an epic fantasy series like this in a few years. The 2nd and 3rd books were, quite simply, amazing and I am really looking forward to the developments I will catch up on in book 4. I am only about 50 pages in, so no real thoughts on anything yet.

Let me add to that with respect to our last comments about books 6-10 or w/e. They are filler, fluff, and not as good as the others. But that doesn't mean they aren't GOOD. IMO, people complain too harshly about these books. The first ones, in my opinion, were so good that when the quality went down people started to trash the series. While if they would have started at that quality, it would still be considered a decent series. As I said, once Sanderson starts writing. It gets back to the amazing'ness of the series.

To the OP I'm a little envious to be honest. I've been waiting for the conclusion to the saga for nigh on 20 years now, and just thinking back to the start of the journey all those years ago brings back some good memories. I would say it's definitely worth the read even if some of the later volumes are a little laborious.

One of the definitive works for any Fantasy lover, it's not as dark or gritty as say Martin or Erikson but the cast of characters is great and the story is suitably epic.

Let me add to that with respect to our last comments about books 6-10 or w/e. They are filler, fluff, and not as good as the others. But that doesn't mean they aren't GOOD. IMO, people complain too harshly about these books. The first ones, in my opinion, were so good that when the quality went down people started to trash the series. While if they would have started at that quality, it would still be considered a decent series. As I said, once Sanderson starts writing. It gets back to the amazing'ness of the series.

The endings in books 6-10 were all fantastic imo, especially A Crown of Swords and Winter's Heart. I felt that Winter's HEart was undeserving of the hate it got, I thought it was the best between books 7-10.

Let me add to that with respect to our last comments about books 6-10 or w/e. They are filler, fluff, and not as good as the others. But that doesn't mean they aren't GOOD. IMO, people complain too harshly about these books. The first ones, in my opinion, were so good that when the quality went down people started to trash the series. While if they would have started at that quality, it would still be considered a decent series. As I said, once Sanderson starts writing. It gets back to the amazing'ness of the series.

With some major editing they probably could have been just as good as the first five. There was some interesting stuff happening in those books, just too much filler and repetition of the same conversations over and over. I've always thought one of the biggest problems is he was married to his editor. He needed someone he wasn't so close to that could tell him half of what he was writing was garbage.

God. I'm sorry for recommending apparently two spoilerific sites. Geez. I used this character site exclusively during my read, and was never spoiled about anything. Seriously it was a life saver, specially for remembering all the million Aes Sedai that show up. But, I just sent an email to the creator of that site telling him about this.

Spoiler:

If you look at the first book, Ba'alzamon description, it states the same thing. Ridiculous. While this is pretty strongly hinted at during the books, it's not explicitly revealed until TSR. It's not a very surprising reveal, or very important one for that matter. After it's revealed, it's forgotten about and no longer means much. I wouldn't concern yourself too much with it, there are many many hints already pointing towards it. Many people by this time already assume it's one of the Forsaken, and most likely Ish. Regardless, I'm a little angry that there is even a LITTLE spoiler in something that claims 100% spoiler free.

If he responds to me and changes this I will still recommend that site. Don't give up just yet, because as I said this wasn't a huge spoiler. But there should be 0 spoilers.

Side note: One thing that sucks about spoiler tags is that anyone subscribed to this thread(or any thread), when they get an email about the new post it just shows [ / s p o i l e r ] and the text...so if they dont close quickly you will see something you don't want to.

No worries, as you mentioned it's hinted at more than once anyway. I think I will keep using the site then, as it does appear as if it could become extremely helpful down the track.

Finished my read through and was very pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed them. I don't know if was the speed i read them or the fact I did a full run through but those middle books were in no way as bad as I remembered. They did labour a bit at points but still kept me very much entertained and had started to improve at the tail end. The story really got on song once Sanderson took over though, I really do like him more and more everytime I read some of his work.

I am currently reading Winter's Heart, which is the ninth book of the series. I enjoy the overall story arc and the characters, but it can be really hard to read at times. There's a million characters and it is hard to keep track of them. Also, there seems to be so much wasted pages and chapters. It seems like I can read fifty pages or so with no advancement of the plot. Generally speaking, I think Jordan would have been better off cutting his word count by half to make a tighter story.
Carl Alves

I am currently reading Winter's Heart, which is the ninth book of the series. I enjoy the overall story arc and the characters, but it can be really hard to read at times. There's a million characters and it is hard to keep track of them. Also, there seems to be so much wasted pages and chapters. It seems like I can read fifty pages or so with no advancement of the plot. Generally speaking, I think Jordan would have been better off cutting his word count by half to make a tighter story.
Carl Alves

Pretty much what everyone says at about your point in the story. As we said on this thread, it gets better with Knife. Then TGS and ToM are both back to being the amazing story that got you hooked in the first place. Even better if you ask me. More modern style. Also to keep track of characters, mainly Aes Sedai and different people. Refer to the character list I mentioned above. http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~karlh/cgi-bin/wot.cgi - Besides the spoiler already pointed out, which I believe was a small mistake by the webauthor, it should be SPOILER FREE.

Finished The Great Hunt last night and have to say its a much much better book. I was thinking of reading something else before I went on to The Dragon Reborn...but as tGH was so good I have decided to go straight onto the next one.

One thing that has irked me a little is that at the end of tGH when Min is cradling Rand a beautiful woman named Lanfear appears and says that Rand is hers, we do know that Lanfear is one of the forsaken and I'm guessing there is a very strong possibility that she is Selene. She tells Min who she is etc...At the beginning of tDR Moiraine is discussing the possibility of the forsaken having being freed but Min never mentions that Lanfear visited Rand and spoke to her, she just says to Perrin to be wary of a beautiful woman. You would have thought Min would have said something to somebody so they knew Lanfear had escaped. Found that bit very frustrating....

Finished The Great Hunt last night and have to say its a much much better book. I was thinking of reading something else before I went on to The Dragon Reborn...but as tGH was so good I have decided to go straight onto the next one.

One thing that has irked me a little is that at the end of tGH when Min is cradling Rand a beautiful woman named Lanfear appears and says that Rand is hers, we do know that Lanfear is one of the forsaken and I'm guessing there is a very strong possibility that she is Selene. She tells Min who she is etc...At the beginning of tDR Moiraine is discussing the possibility of the forsaken having being freed but Min never mentions that Lanfear visited Rand and spoke to her, she just says to Perrin to be wary of a beautiful woman. You would have thought Min would have said something to somebody so they knew Lanfear had escaped. Found that bit very frustrating....

With limited memory of every detail, my guess is around this time they don't trust Moiraine. I don't think they start trusting her until the end.

Ive been on holiday this last week so have had plenty of reading time. Am ploughing through The Dragon Reborn and absolutley loving it. It really has improved in the last book and a half.

Mat has just met up with Thom and theyre off to give Morgase the letter from Elayne.....

I was hooked with the 1st book, liked the Great Hunt even more, but The Dragon Reborn was where it all got really exciting for me as well.
I envy you, reading it for the first time. Makes me want to go back and read them all again. For the 3rd time.
Keep reading.
B&N keeps sending me emails with links to partial preview chapters from Memory of Light and I eat them up. It looks like the last book will be quite a ride/read.

I read all of the series that Jordan wrote in one fell swoop. I found myself skimming through some of the the later books, finding the parts that I was anxious to see what happened. I finished just as The Gathering Storm was released, and read it in about 12 hours.

Then I started right at the beginning and re-read the series and used the internet as a resource to follow all the characters, and I LOVED all the detail in the later books. I think many of us who've enjoyed all the books find the same thing - with the exception of one interminable plotline- it seems almost universally disliked, but even that almost adds to the epic nature of the series.